The culture and tradition of India is considered as old and great all over the world where people used to worship various female goddesses, saints and poets. India is also a powerful nation and famous worldwide for being the largest democracy in the world however, women backwardness is also very clear in the Indian society because of the social issues, problems and lots of restrictions against women. Women belong to the lower and middle class family suffers more than the women of higher class family. Women in the Indian society generally face problems of sex discrimination, high percentage of illiteracy, female infanticide, dowry system, etc. Taking birth as a woman in the Indian society can be said as curse for the women. Women in India face lots of social issues and problems all through the life which are big struggle for them right from their beginning of life. Female infanticide is the most common practice of killing girl child in mother’s womb in the Indian society. Women in India are considered as burden for their parents and husbands as they think that women are here only to consume money whole life without earning a little bit. Another common problem for women is sex discrimination which they face from their birth and continues till their death. Illiteracy, lack of proper education, responsible for household works, rape, sexual harassment at workplace, etc are some big issues for the women in India. Women in the Indian society have been considered as inferior than men for many years. Because of such type of inferiority they have to face various issues and problems in their life. They have to go extra miles than men to prove themselves equivalent to men. People in the middle age were considering women as key to destruction so they never allowed women to go outside and participate in the social activities like men. Still in the modern age, women have to face many more problems in their daily life and struggle a lot to establish their career. Still there are many parents who prefer to have only boy and allow education to boys only. Women for them are only medium to keep family happy and healthy.

A woman is seen in the society with more intense ridicule sight and become at higher risk of honor killing if she is involved in the love marriage or inter caste love marriage. Women face a lot of challenges because of the existence of patriarchal society, child bearing and family care roles, deep rooted cultural norms, etc in the Indian society. Women in India do not have equal access to autonomy, mobility to outside the home, social freedom, etc than men. Some of the problems faced by the women are because of their domestic responsibilities, cultural and social specified roles, etc.

There are various issues and problems which women generally face in the society in India of which Selective abortion and female infanticide is the most common practice for years in India in which abortion of female fetus is performed in the womb of mother after the foetal sex determination and sex selective abortion by the medical professionals. Sexual harassment is the form of sexual exploitation of a girl child at home, streets, public places, transports, offices, etc by the family members, neighbors, friends or relatives.

Dowry and Bride burning is another problem generally faced by women of low or middle class family during or after the marriage. Parents of boys demand a lot of money from the bride’s family to be rich in one time. Groom’s family perform bride burning in case of lack of fulfilled dowry demand. In 2005, around 6787 dowry death cases was registered in India according to the Indian National Crime Bureau reports. The level of women education is less than men still in the modern age. Female illiteracy id higher in the rural areas. where over 63% or more women remain unlettered.

Domestic violence is like endemic and widespread disease affects almost 70% of Indian women according to the women and child development official. It is performed by the husband, relative or other family member. Girls have no property rights like boys forever. Early marriage of the girls by heir parents in order to be escaped from dowry. It is highly practiced in the rural India.  Inadequate nutrition in the childhood affects women in their later life especially women belonging to the lower middle class and poor families.

Domestic violence and status in the family is the abuse or violence against women. Women are considered as inferior to men so they are not allowed to join military services. Widows are considered as worthless in the Indian society. They are treated poorly and forced to wear white clothes.

Earlier women were facing problems like child marriage, sati pratha, parda pratha, restriction to widow remarriage, widows exploitation, devadasi system, etc. However, almost all the old traditional problems have been disappeared gradually from the society but given rise to other new issues. Women are continuously facing many problems even after having self-confidence, individuality, self-respect, personality, capacity, talent, and efficiency more than men. They are facing problems in their daily life even after they are given equal rights and opportunities like men by the Constitution of India. Some of the major problems modern women are still facing mentioned below.

Women are getting affected by the various violence almost every day which is disrupting the society. Women are being victims of violence at huge level day by day because of increasing crimes against women (according to the report of Crime Record Bureau of the Central Home Ministry). Woman is getting kidnapped at every 44 minutes, raped at every 47 minutes, 17 dowry deaths every day, etc. They may face violence within the family (dowry related harassment, death, marital rape, wife-battering, sexual abuse, deprivation of healthy food, female genital mutilation, etc) or outside the family (kidnapping, rape, murder, etc).

Women are considered as weaker section of the society than men and given less importance. Girls children are becoming real victims of the discrimination. There are also discrimination of power and work between men and women because of the patriarchal system families in India. Gender discrimination affects women in the areas like nutrition, education, health, care, decline of female population, job, public life, etc. Women education percentage is low in India especially in the rural areas because they are discouraged for higher education like professional and technical education.

Women are getting more problems in searching their suitable work. They become more prone to the exploitation and harassment in the work areas.

They are given more work and hard tasks by their boss intentionally. They have to prove their devotion, seriousness and sincerity towards work time to time.

Women who are uneducated more prone to divorce and desertion by their husbands on any stage of life. They have to live whole life with fear of divorce. In some cases they have to finish their life because of unbearable conditions.

Dowry system is another huge women problem in the society which is increasing day by day. Women are ill-treated, man-handled, disrespected, tortured and suffer other cruelties (violence, murder and suicide) because of the lack of dowry at the time of marriage. It cause degradation of women status to a great extent.

While the problems faced by women are discussed, it would be apt to look at Gender Justice . Bangles, which are synonymous with women, have been quite often used as a metaphor for shackles. Not only in feminist literature, but also otherwise. Gender Inequity has been a prevalent condition in all cultures surpassing all other differentiations. Male chauvinism as a state of mind is so well dissipated that gender stereotypes and sexism exists even in urban subcultures just as it does, more so, overtly in rural, rudimentary cultures. Gender dynamics have largely been deepened by simple dichotomies between the sexes and its associated products and practices. From tribal to agricultural to industrial societies to organized states the division of labor has primarily stemmed from physiological differences between the sexes, leading to the power resting with the men, resulting in the established gender hierarchies. We have been gifted with a history of discrimination, subjugation and suppression.

In India, it is believed that women enjoyed an equal status as men in the Vedic Period. The education of women held considerable significance, especially from works of katayana and patanjali. The Upanishadas and the Vedas have cited women sages and seers. But the condition declined considerably afterwards. Historical practices such as Sati, Jauhar, Purdah and Devdasis, child marriage, are a few traditions reflective of the gender imbalance in Indian Society. Though these practices are largely defunct now, due to legal reform, the essence of the dysfunctional gender equity still is rampant and manifested today through domestic violence, trafficking, dowry deaths, female infanticide, female foeticide, sexual objectification and violence and sexual harassment at work place.

In ancient Greek and Roman societies women were treated as inferior to men. Procreation of children has been held to be the only role for women. Conception was her only purpose. Hence women were greatly discriminated against. The perception of women among Christian theologians was highly unfavorable. Gender inequity continued into medieval societies as subversive perspective on gender deepened. Under common law of England, a married woman hardly had any rights; she had no rights to her property after marriage. In the early history of the United States, women and children were considered as a man’s possession. Women began working in industries, the conditions of work and timings were atrocious but it was until 1910 that the states passed legislations alleviating the conditions of work.

The issue of suffrage is another glaring illustration of gender prejudice. The struggle for the right to vote for women in USA and Europe blatantly highlights the gender intolerance, the politics of power resulting from dysfunctional gender hierarchies. The movement for woman’s suffrage started in France in the 18th Century. In USA women were given the right to vote in 1920, whereas in UK it was in 1928.

Continuing into the 20th Century, gender imbalances gave rise to Feminist Movements, especially in North America and West Europe. With fervent movements and growth of awareness, there arose gradually some liberalization in social structures and institutions. Various legal reforms were introduced, legislations were passed, which helped in alleviating some of the divides in gender inequity.

Gender Justice, simply put refers to equality between the sexes. Gender justice is a correlation of social, economic, political, environmental, cultural and educational factors; these preconditions need to be satisfied for achieving gender justice. Globally, gender justice as a cause has gained in strength over the years, as it has been realized that no state can truly progress if half of its population is held back.

The struggle for equal rights, freedom and justice has been made by human rights activists, feminists, NGO’s and through Government support. Even though considerable progress has been made in this regard, women are still lagging behind. With globalization, there are other complex issues that women face today along with the elementary issues that have always plagued women. Consumerism and cultural heterogeneity has brought in its fold more objectification of women. Apart from these issues, there are still many cultures in the world where the condition of women is still deplorable, they still have no control or right over themselves or their bodies or their children. The condition is worse in Africa and the Middle East. Gender Justice refers to harmonizing of rights and needs of women into mainstream society. Justice in this sense means more balanced behavior, an end to violence and equal distribution of social necessities.

Globally, the United Nations has established a strong mandate for gender justice. The focus on gender equality and gender justice has been there since the inception of the UN. In 1946, a separate body was formed to work on the advancement of women. The Commission on the Status of Women worked from its inception to collect and compile data on women’s situation around the world, to promote women’s human rights and raise awareness of, and support for, their contribution to development. The Decade for Women (1976-1985) and four world conferences on women (between 1975 and 1995) contributed significantly to raising awareness and commitment to gender equality and gender justice. In 1995, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action had been framed for guiding work at national level.

The human rights treaty on gender equality – The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has been ratified by 185 states and the optional protocol by 90 states. Since 1995 and the adoption of gender mainstreaming as a critical strategy for achieving gender equality, intergovernmental bodies – such as the General Assembly, the ECOSOC and the Commission on the Status of Women – have worked to mainstream gender perspectives as an integral part of all policy areas. At the 2005 World Summit, world leaders reiterated that progress for women is progress for all. The UNIFEM is another agency of the UN. It is the development fund for women at the United Nations. It provides technical and financial assistance to innovative programmes and strategies to foster women’s empowerment and gender equality. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) also has the Gender Development Index (GDI). It is an indication of the standard of living in a country, developed by the UN. It aims to show the inequalities between men and women: long and healthy life, knowledge and decent standard of living. India is ranked 128th in the Gender Development Index, while USA is 12th and UK is 16th.

There are various legislations that have been passed in India with a view to curb the imbalance in gender hierarchy and aid in women’s empowerment. The constitution of India guarantees various rights for women in this regard. This can be evidenced by Part III of the Constitution which deals with fundamental rights and Part IV which deals with Directives Principles of State Policy. Article 14 states that there shall be equal protection of the law and equality before the law which means that the Courts or any Law enforcement agency should not discriminate between a man and a woman. The right to equality is the foundation on which other laws are formulated and can be implemented.

Without the right to equality, the purpose of gender justice cannot be achieved. Article 15 guarantees the right against discrimination. The prejudice and bias against women is rampant an issue to be countered by the right to equality, hence the right against discrimination. Article 15(3) talks about the special protection for women. Article 16 provides the right to equal opportunity in terms of public employment irrespective of the sex of the person.

This provision aids women to start participating in elections and the decision making process. In this regard it is important to mention the 74th amendment, made for the reservation for women in panchayats.

In conclusion, Complete gender justice is complex to achieve typically in a country like India. The diversity of cultures, subcultures, is vast and there is a lot of rigidity in traditions and beliefs. Lack of education, lack of development, poverty, improper enforcement of the laws, lack of awareness among women, deep rooted patriarchy, economic dependence of women, all lead to the subversive condition of women in our society. Gender hierarchies in Europe and USA are relatively more balanced than in India.

Quite simply, most of their sex equality laws are mostly centered on employment and workplace. Not only that, their sex equality laws also explicitly include trans-genders and the rights have been extended to gay and lesbian communities which is unprecedented in India. Gender development in any sphere in any country is a key component of the development and overall welfare of any state. Various NGO’s and governmental agencies, UN agencies, activists have been promoting gender rights and vocal in their protest against discrimination. . Even though, there has been progress in securing gender justice, there is still a lot to be done.